Teenage girl faces domestic violence

PESHAWAR, June 22 2005: A 49-year-old villager of Kharian shaved the head of his teenage spouse and kept her tied to a charpoy for three days to avoid her escape from his house.

The 16-year old victim Nazakat, lost her first baby after she received severe blows on her womb on May 28. The Kharian police, according to the victim, refused to register any case when she approached them along with her 75-year old father, Raza Khan.

Nazakat of Sufaid Dheri Peshawar had married as second wife to 49-year old employee of Kharian post office, Abdul Shakoor, on November 26 last year. The accused had divorced his first wife for unknown reasons. “We lived a happy life in the beginning. But he had started torturing me without any reason for the past few months. And last month, he shaved my head, the worst torture a girl can imagine,” Nazakat told The News. She has barely grown her hair to an inch after the tragic incident. The woman also complained of different kinds of torture.

The father of the victim, Raza Khan, informed that he found his daughter tied to a charpoy when he rushed to Kharian after receiving a rumour that Nazakat had been killed. The elderly person, who sells beans in streets continued that he approached the Kharian police station along with his daughter but they refused to register his complaint.

The young woman along with her father then approached Voice of Prisoners, a free legal aid organisation, to seek justice. The family has sought the help of President General Pervez Musharraf and Advisor to Prime Minister on Women Affairs Neelofar Bakhtiar in the issue. The lawyer of the victim has sent an application to SSP Peshawar to correspond with Kharian police on the issue while they are also going to file a writ petition in Lahore High Court and the Family Court.
Source: The News
Date:6/22/2005